Actually, I didn’t defend Bush. I did, however, defend people who in 2002 might have supported the Iraq war resolution. There is a notion going around that everyone who supported the war was either a dupe or a Bushie fanatic. That just isn’t true, and it oversimplifies what was actually a complicated issue of intelligence assessment and strategy.

I've had a polite exchange with him, and may post more on these and related issues later on. But you can read the Bernard Finel post Fester was critiquing here and an article with a more comprehensive explanation of his views here.